State Budget Submission 2026-2027
Queensland Teachers' Journal, Vol 131 No 1, 20 February 2026, page no 6.
This year’s QTU’s State Budget Submission outlines 57 recommendations across nine key areas and offers well-considered solutions that would ease the pressures within the public education sector.
The submission was developed in the midst of an ever-deepening teacher workforce crisis and at a time when the government delivered an enterprise bargaining (EB) offer that was rejected by the majority of QTU members.
This submission has captured key aspects of the current industrial and professional contexts and provides the state government with members’ analysis and insights on the resources, strategies, policies, and approaches needed to rectify this dire and long-standing crisis.
Safety and security
As the safety and security of educators and students is currently of great concern to QTU members, this section of the submission is the largest, with a focus upon eliminating occupational violence and investing in alternative learning centres. QTU members have indicated that the development of a planned and staged process for the allocation of school maintenance funds and investing in school fencing would improve infrastructure in a way that would significantly improve safety and security. Another recommendation is for the department to develop fit-for-purpose and simplified incident and WorkCover reporting processes, with centrally funded time release made available to undertake the reporting.
Address the teacher workforce crisis
This is the second largest section in this submission, with an emphasis upon attracting new entrants to the profession, retaining experienced educators within the public sector, and attracting staff to rural, remote and “difficult-to-staff” locations. It includes such matters as negotiating world-class salaries, with higher starting salaries for those who begin their careers in hard-to-staff locations. It also outlines the need to develop rural and remote attraction incentives that link the incentive paid to the transfer points of the school (e.g. a rating 6 school attracts a 6 per cent salary incentive, a level 11 school a 11 per cent incentive payment). QTU members have also called for a differentiated approach to Recognition of Rural and Remote Service Scheme (RoRRS) incentives for education leaders.
The submission also highlights the need to provide resources, mentoring, and support to beginning teachers, to help retain them in the system and to provide mentors with release time to do this essential work. It recommends new tax arrangements to aid with the reduction of teaching graduates' Higher Education Loan Program (HELP) tax debts for each year that they teach within the public education system.
Curriculum and professional development (PD)
The submission urges the government to invest in additional release time for PD for teachers in all phases and stages of their careers. This extends to the professional support and release needed for curriculum development, pedagogy, and capability development, in addition to extra planning and preparation time for all teachers. This is important, as it would recognise everything that experienced teachers and education leaders provide to the system.
Workload
The submission also focusses on addressing workload issues, with recommendations including a reduction in class sizes and, importantly, properly funded special education and inclusion practices. The reduction of crushing administrative demands and compliance paperwork tasks and the need to decrease the myriad of professional demands feature in a number of the sections of this submission.
QTU members have again asked for a review of playground duty supervision and bus duties to release teachers from these burdens and to ease the workload pressures. They have asked for DoE to employ more regional staff to undertake compliance administrative tasks that currently take up the time of education leaders.
Further recommendations in the areas of special education, education leadership, curriculum, PD, First Nations education and employment, and TAFE are also discussed.
The QTU’s State Budget Submission was sent to the Premier, the Education Minister and the Training Minster in December. All other state politicians will receive a copy in early 2026. QTU members are encouraged to work with their Organisers to arrange to meet with their local state representatives about the recommendations and the need to address the teacher workforce crisis, as well as the need to secure a fair and reasonable teachers agreement.
The full submission is available here.